Lafayette is one of the country's best-shooting teams. The Leopards continued to connect vs. Wagner.

Coach Fran O'Hanlon joked before this season that Lafayette wouldn't be a defensive juggernaut. The Leopards aren't likely to finish among the nation's top rebounding teams either.

Where Lafayette holds an edge on most college squads is its shooting ability. Wagner discovered Saturday just how potent the Leopards are when they find their footing.

Dan Trist and Bryce Scott went to work on the Seahawks early. Joey Ptasinski and Seth Hinrichs joined in later in the first half.

No matter what Wagner tried defensively, Lafayette continued to score. By the time the Leopards sent most of their starters to the bench in the second half, the only question remaining was whether they would reach triple digits.

Lafayette came up a bit short of a 100-point night. The Leopards still rolled to a 97-84 win in a nonleague men's basketball game at Kirby Sports Center.

Saturday's visit from Wagner kicked off a three-game homestand for Lafayette after it spent most of November on the road. The Leopards looked quite comfortable on their own floor.

Lafayette (5-2 overall) shot 63.5 percent from the field and 56.5 percent from 3-point range to blitz the Seahawks (2-5). Trist scored a season-high 26 points to lead the Leopards.

Ptasinski added 23 points and tied his career high by making seven 3-pointers. Hinrichs added 17 points, six rebounds and six assists to help offset a six-turnover afternoon.

"Those guys, that's a well-oiled offensive machine," Wagner coach Bashir Mason said. "I think they're 15th in the nation in field-goal percentage offense, and up there as well from the 3-point line.

"We tried to throw everything at them we had for the entire 40 minutes. They made contested shots, open shots. They're really good."

The Leopards blistered Wagner's defense in the first half, scoring 56 points while shooting 70.4 percent from the field and 72.7 percent (8-11) from 3-point range. It was their highest first-half output since Dec. 20, 2006, when they scored 58 first-half points in an 89-80 win over Division III King's College.

The Leopards used a 21-8 run in the middle of the first half Saturday to surge to a 50-34 lead. Ptasinski drilled three 3-pointers during that stretch, while Hinrichs added six points.

"Joey, Bryce, all those guys, when they start making shots, I think we get a boost from that," Hinrichs said. "Obviously when you see your shot go in, it makes you want to play a little harder on defense too. That shouldn't always be the case, but it's kind of the way it goes."

Lafayette zipped the ball through and around the Wagner defense most of the afternoon. Scott (eight points, five assists) joined Hinrichs in finding open teammates as Wagner's strategy to force players other than point guard Nick Lindner (six points, four assists) to make decisions didn't work. The Leopards finished with 19 assists on 33 field goals.

Lafayette put the game out of reach by starting the second half with eight straight points, opening a 64-45 lead. The Leopards led by as many as 21 points and wound up playing 15 guys by afternoon's end.

Trist gave the Seahawks trouble all game. He finished 11-for-16 from the field, scoring his 26 points while playing just 23 minutes.

"We just kind of attacked what they were giving us," Trist said. "They were trapping and pressing a little bit, so we got a lot of inside-out looks off of rotations. I just ended up with the ball a couple of times."

With Trist playing well on the inside through the season's first few weeks, the Leopards have been a headache for most defenses. They have crushed the three NEC teams they have played so far (Robert Morris, Fairleigh Dickinson and Wagner), winning by an average of 20.3 points.

They have a chance to head into their exam break with a sweep of their NEC foes this season. They host Sacred Heart on Monday.

"When we move the ball, we're hard to guard," O'Hanlon said. "On the other end, we've got to continue to get better defensively and rebounding the basketball, and with our rotations.